It's the Year of the Bee at the museum's annual, ever-popular Bug Fair.

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Bugs and bug buffs will be out in full, happy force at the Natural History Museum on Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

The sun may own orange -- wait, the sun's orange-y, right? -- and the sky may own blue, but bees? No creature or thing rocks stripes in quite the same way.

It's an iconic beastie, in short, one we flee from even as we're grateful for all of the gifts bees bring. Their many gifts, from honey to environmental order, have vaulted them to the top position at this year's Bug Fair, the annual Natural History Museum's super-popular insect festival.

And while our stripey stinger pals are indeed this year's honorees, all sorts of creepy-crawlers'll get their moment in the limelight (or the darkened shadows, we suppose, since most bugs prefer quieter crevices).

Want to hold a millipede or tarantula? You can. Want to learn about urban beekeeping, a pursuit growing by leaps and winged bounds 'round SoCal? That's happening. Want to peruse live insects from some 70 exhibitors? Of course you do. Do you want to eat something crunchy and possibly laden with larvae or little bug legs, from the Bug Chef? Please. Be brave and give it a go, just once.

If you go, check out the museum's new Nature Gardens, an area that'll officially debut on June 9. (Don't you wonder if the outdoor bugs at the gardens are a bit jealous of all the attention the indoor bugs are getting?)

Bug Fair is called the largest bug festival in North America, and that's not the museum unduly puffing its thorax: It's huge. Adult insect buffs are out in full force, in addition to kids, buying bugly merch and talking with experts about cockroaches and beetles and, yep, the run-from-it-but-love-it-too bee.